Wasim Khan 'certain' England still coming to Pakistan despite NZ pull-out
PCB CEO Wasim Khan said he certainly believes the England teams should still be coming to Pakistan
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) CEO Wasim Khan has opened up about the upcoming tours of England men and women to Pakistan, as uncertainty looms over cricket in Pakistan after New Zealand’s last minute pull-out on Friday.
During a press conference, Khan said he certainly believes the teams should still be coming to Pakistan, claiming a “clean bill of health from a security perspective.”
"England are meeting today to make a decision on whether they will tour Pakistan or not. We know what the guidance is, we know from a security perspective there's a clean bill of health. We certainly hope England tour. We certainly believe they should be coming and hope they will be coming, based on what the competent authority in Islamabad and the security expert (ESI Security) is saying,” he shared.
"The same security expert who provided the guidance for the ECB to go to Bangladesh, six weeks after the bomb blast that killed 12 people [in 2016] - so there's a lot of trust put into this security expert who is understood and respected around the world. We certainly hope when the board meets, the ECB will decide to send their team to Pakistan for this short tour,” he added.
"The travel advisory is an indicator of threat levels. Most of the Western embassies across the world use the travel advisory as an indicator of where the threat levels are," he said.
"The advisory has not changed from the UK government, nor from Australia, Canada and the US. There was no security breach [with the New Zealand tour]; the tour was abandoned because of a perceived threat,” he continued.
"In terms of what is in place, ultimately the ECB board will make a decision. There are two elements any board looks at. One is the advisory a government has for citizens of their nation going to any country. Secondly, it's around the security provision that is put in place directly for the team. Both of those angles we've been told there's a clean bill of health and there's confidence on both sides. But ultimately, the decision is the ECB board's, and we'll have to wait and see,” he added.
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